Television|Review: In ‘Battle Creek,’ the F.B.I. Sets Up Shop With the Police

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Review: In ‘Battle Creek,’ the F.B.I. Sets Up Shop With the Police

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Josh Duhamel, left, and Dean Winters fight crime in Michigan in “Battle Creek,” a 13-episode procedural created by Vince Gilligan and David Shore, starting on Sunday on CBS.CreditCreditMonty Brinton/CBS

The title is confusing, yet it kind of explains everything. “Battle Creek” is a CBS cop show set in that small, rusting city in Michigan, (population 51,848), a place that is mostly associated with Kellogg’s cereal.

In other words, “Battle Creek,” which begins on Sunday, is a crime series that plays against type. It’s not like “NCIS” or “Chicago P.D.,” and it doesn’t fit easily into another category, because this series lies somewhere between a lighthearted procedural and a black-lined comedy.

It’s also a collaboration between Vince Gilligan, who created “Breaking Bad” on AMC, and David Shore, who came up with the Fox medical drama “House” — a mixing of rare breeds that works.

The setup is deceptively familiar: Two mismatched cops are forced to work together as partners. Dean Winters plays Russ Agnew, a cynical old-school detective who mistrusts people, technology and innovation. Josh Duhamel is Milt Chamberlain, an impossibly handsome, positive and courteous F.B.I. agent who was sent to Battle Creek to set up a state-of-the-art satellite office and help the local police.

When he first introduces himself to the squad, Milt flashes his bright white smile and says he feels at home in Battle Creek because he, too, grew up in a small town. “You grew up in Michigan?” Russ asks. “Monaco, actually,” Milt replies. “But you know, same deal.”

The premiere follows “The Good Wife” on Sunday, and that’s a good fit because that legal drama is also more layered and sophisticated than most.

For a while now, networks have been siphoning off some of the creative license of cable shows, and at the moment, the most interesting series on broadcast television feel as if they belong on FX or AMC. The NBC series “The Slap,” a sardonic look at middle class mores, is one. Another is the coming ABC series “American Crime,” a searing, detailed look at race and class through the prism of a murder in Modesto, Calif., which was created by John Ridley, who wrote the screenplay for “12 Years a Slave.”

“Battle Creek” is more of a hybrid between network and cable. It’s a 13-episode procedural that follows the basic rules of network crime shows — episodes center on a murder mystery that is solved by the last commercial and dilute brutal violence with humor. Yet the sensibility of this show is markedly different.

And it’s not just because of its cinematography and music, though both are noticeably subtler and more artful than the obtrusive, blaring color and sound that fuels a show like “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

“Battle Creek” shows restraint, resisting the cloyingly cute setups and banter that so many network shows rely on. It helps that Mr. Winters and Mr. Duhamel give performances that add some glints of complexity to their surface charm, and that the writers avoid many of the usual clichés. This is an engaging series about a likable bunch of co-workers that isn’t too sweet or predictable.

It’s not “Breaking Bad,” of course, though there are some echoes of that series, including a glancing allusion early on: An episode titled “Syruptitious” puts the detectives on the trail of a ruthless cartel, in this case a gang of illegal maple syrup dealers, not meth dealers.

There are also some reminders of “House,” too, including Kal Penn, who played a protégé of Dr. House and here is cast as Detective Fontanelle White, a.k.a. Font.

Most of the other members of the squad, male and female, are smitten with Milt. But Russ is instantly allergic to the newcomer’s squeaky-clean, can-do charisma, and he makes it his mission to find out why one of the F.B.I.’s best and brightest ended up in Battle Creek, which, as he puts it, is a step down from Peoria.

But despite their incompatibility, the two men make a pretty good team — Russ has street smarts, informants and a detective’s dogged determination, and Milt has matinee idol magnetism and the most advanced F.B.I. resources and technology available. When Milt hands out disposable booties to the investigating team at a crime scene, most of the Battle Creek officers are as delighted as children at an Easter egg hunt.

Russ is wrong about a lot of things, but he is right to suspect that Milt isn’t telling the whole truth about his new assignment. And while there are hints along the way, that mystery isn’t cleared up until the final episode of the season. (All 13 episodes were provided to critics in advance.)

Not all collaborations that sound ideal actually work. David Milch (“Deadwood”) and Michael Mann (“Miami Vice”) famously teamed up for “Luck,” a star-studded series about horse racing that was so ill-fated that HBO canceled a planned second season.